Posts Tagged ‘susan musgrave’

Tomorrow, April 21 at 7:00 pm, the Robson Reading Series will be celebrating National Poetry Month with three visionary poets: Jacob McArthur Mooney, Susan Musgrave and Matt Rader.

The event takes place at the UBC Bookstore/Library at Robson Square (800 Robson Street, Plaza Level) between Howe and Hornby.

Doors will open at 6:45pm. Admission is free. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Coffee/tea and treats will be served.

Jacob McArthur Mooney is the author of two books of poetry: the much-acclaimed The New Layman’s Almanac (McClelland & Stewart, 2008), and the recently released Folk (McClelland & Stewart, March 2011). Taking as its inciting incident the 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia, before moving to the neighbourhoods around Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Folk is an elaborately composed inquiry into the human need for frames, edges, borders, and a passionate probe of contemporary challenges to identity, whether of individual, neighbourhood, city, or nation. Mooney was the winner of the inaugural Open Poetry Stage at Harbourfront Centre in 2009, as well as a finalist for the 2008 CBC Literary Award in Poetry. His work has also received the Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award. Originally from Nova Scotia, he now lives in Toronto, ON.

Susan Musgrave has published fourteen books of poetry, as well as works of fiction, non-fiction, and writing for children. Her most recent book Origami Dove (McClelland & Stewart, March 2011) is her first book of new poems in more than a decade. Previous titles include When the World Is Not Our Home: Selected Poems 1985-2000 (Thistledown, 2009), You’re in Canada Now . . . A Memoir of Sorts (Thistledown, 2005), and the bestselling novel Cargo of Orchids (Knopf, 2000). She has been a finalist for numerous awards including the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, the Stephen Leacock Award and the Governor General’s Award for both poetry (twice) and fiction. She has won a BC Book Award, the CBC/Saturday Night/Tilden Award for Poetry and the Vicky Metcalf Short Story Editor’s Award. She divides her time between Victoria and Haida Gwaii, BC.

Matt Rader launches his third book of poetry, A Doctor Pedalled Her Bicycle Over the River Arno (House of Anansi Press, 2011), and lures us into a luminous, demanding, particularized realm of wildflowers and weeds, newspaper archives and illness, hostels and hostiles. He is also the author of two previous collections, Miraculous Hours (Nightwood Editions, 2005) and Living Things (Nightwood Editions, 2008), as well as the fine press chapbook, The Land Beyond (Greenboathouse Books, 2003). His poems, stories, and non-fiction have appeared in journals and anthologies across North America, Australia, and Europe and have been nominated for numerous awards including the Gerald Lampert Award, the Journey Prize, and two Pushcart Prizes. He lives in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, BC.

Two legendary BC poets put on a show together. bill bissett and Susan Musgrave present their poems, which have influenced generations of West Coast poets with the independent spirit of their rule-bending poetic approaches.

Forget what you learned about spelling and grammar, in fact chop it to pieces and push it down the garburator because there’s no room for rules when bill bissett hits the stage. A university drop-out, runaway and internationally acclaimed poet, bissett refutes conventional interpretations of language, creating a unique style of concrete poetry based in phonetics and barren grammatical states. West Coast based, bissett is more literary wizard than traditional poet, and was honored for his endeavors in 2007, when he became one of a distinguished many to receive the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to literature in British Columbia.

Publisher of 20 books, Susan Musgrave promises to offer an equally thrilling poetic performance alongside bissett. With a life that reads like a piece of fiction itself, Musgrave is a runaway, a drop-out, a drug smuggler’s divorcee, wife to a bandit, mother of two and finally, a poet. This wild sea-witch of the West Coast has been short listed four times for the Governor Generals Award, and is a winner of the National Magazine Award as well as the R.P. Adams Award for Short Fiction and b.p. nichol Poetry Chapbook Award.

Pandora’s Collective will be at WOTS 2010 with the Twisted Poets, but before The Word On The Street Vancouver happens in September, Pandora’s Collective is producing the Summer Dreams Literary Art Festival August 13-24.

There are so many great people participating, including several past and present WOTS authors. Susan Musgrave will be giving the welcoming address and a poetry reading; World Poetry Reading Series will be there, as will the Vancouver Poetry Slam; Betsy Warland, RC Weslowski, Catherine Owen, SR Duncan, kc dyer, Lee Edward Fodi, Tiffany Stone, Brad Cran, and many more. Also, if you can’t wait till WOTS 2010 to see Heather Susan Haley and James McCann, now’s your chance!

Vancouver has such a vibrant literary arts scene; make sure you show your support by attending the event and participating in workshops and listening to panels and readings. More information available on the Summer Dreams Literary Art Festival website.